Safety garment

ABSTRACT

Safety vest for use in turbulent environments. The vest is made of a breathable material and sized to fit a child. A strap is securely affixed to the vest and sized to encircle a person so that the vest and a child wearing the vest may be secured to the person. The use of the vest will prevent a child from being ripped from a parent&#39;s arms during, for example, severe air turbulence.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a safety garment and more particularly to avest to be worn by a child which is securely attached to another personsuch as an adult.

Children under two years of age are permitted to travel on commercialairliners without purchasing a seat so long as they are on the lap of aparent or other adult. Children over two years of age must purchase aseat but nonetheless often spend time during a lengthy flight on aparent's lap. While the parent will be restrained by a seat belt upontake-off and landing and at other times such as during periods ofturbulence, a child in a parent's lap is restrained only by the parent'sarms.

It is well documented that commercial airliners may be subjected tolarge vertical accelerations often caused by severe turbulence withlittle or no forewarning. Such turbulence may cause the airplane toaccelerate downwardly at a high rate. Objects, including passengers,which are unrestrained may suffer an impact with the ceiling of thepassenger cabin. For example, in December 1997 a commercial airlinerbound for Hawaii from Japan encountered sudden turbulence while flyingover the Pacific Ocean at 33,000 feet. As passengers were preparing toeat a meal the plane suddenly descended. Unrestrained objects hit theceiling including one woman who died of her injuries and sixty otherswho were injured.

It is highly likely that had there been a child sitting on a parent'slap during this tragic event, the child would have been ripped from theparent's arms and severely injured if not killed. The present inventionprovides a secure attachment of a child to a parent or other adult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The safety garment of the invention includes a vest made of a breathablematerial and sized to fit a child. A strap securely affixed to the vestis sized to encircle a person so that the vest and a child wearing thevest are secured to the person. In one embodiment, the vest includes atorso portion and a lower portion adapted to extend through the child'slegs and to attach to the torso portion. The strap may include a longersegment and a shorter segment with the segments including releasableattachment apparatus for fastening the longer and shorter segmentstogether.

The torso portion of the vest may also include a pocket for receivingthe longer segment of the strap when the segments are unattached. Thetorso portion of the vest may open in the front or from the rear and issecured with clips. Adjustment straps may be provided for altering thefit of the vest to assure a snug fit on the child. One embodimentincludes an attachment device affixed to the vest for holding anotherobject such as a pacifier.

A child wearing the vest of the invention is thus securely attached to aparent or adult person. If such person is her or himself wearing a seatbelt, the safety garment of the invention will prevent a child frombeing ripped from the grasp of the adult and thereby prevent injury.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a front view of the safety garment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a rear view of the safety garment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the safety garment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With reference to the three figures of the drawing, a safety garment 10includes a vest 12. The vest 12 includes a torso portion 14 and a lowerportion 16. The torso portion 14 and lower portion 16 are preferablymade of a lightweight, breathable cloth material and may be provided inbright colors so as to be appealing to a child. The safety garment 10 isdesigned for use by infants, toddlers and children up to the age of 4-5years. As will be appreciated, the safety garment 10 will come in arange of sizes to fit, for example, small infants, large infants, smalltoddlers and large toddlers. Adjustment straps 18 may be provided on thesides and back of the torso portion 14 which can be altered to provide asnug fit. The torso portion may open in the front as shown in FIGS. 1and 3 or it may open in the rear (not shown). The front opening vest 12is placed on a child (not shown) and is securely fastened shut withclips 20. It is preferred that the clips 20 be squeeze clips (sometimesreferred to as parachute clips). Such clips have male and femaleportions which clip together and one portion must be squeezed withrespect to the other to release.

The lower portion 16 of the garment 10 preferably has an hourglass shapeas shown to facilitate passing between a child's legs. The lower portion16 includes clips 22 which mate with receptacles 24 on the torso portion14.

Attached to the torso portion 14 below arm openings 26 is a longer strapportion 28 and a shorter strap portion 30. The longer portion 28 mayinclude a clip or buckle 32 which permits length to be adjusted. Thecombined length of the longer portion 28 and the shorter portion 30 issufficient to encircle readily an adult-sized individual. The shortersegment 30 includes a receptacle 34 for receiving the buckle 32 forattaching the portions 28 and 30 together.

A pocket 36 in this embodiment will receive the longer portion 28 whenthe garment 10 is not in use. Similarly, the receptacle 34 on theshorter portion 30 includes a snap 38 which attaches to receivingportion 40 so that the shorter portion 30 may be secured out of the waywhen the garment 10 is not in use. It is preferred that the element 40be mounted on a strip of material allowing one to place a finger behindthe portion 40 so as to be able to snap the portions 38 and 40 together.

It is also preferred that the longer and shorter strap portions 28 and30 be made of a very strong material such a three-inch wide nylon. Thestrap portions 28 and 30 may be permanently sewn to the vest 12 orremovably attached with clips (not shown).

It will be appreciated that a child wearing the safety garment 10 is inthe equivalent of a form-fitting jumpsuit that cannot pop open, ride upor cut into the child's waist. The present design will distribute forcessubstantially evenly over the child's body in the event of a jolt. Thissituation is unlike that which would occur if a child were wearing aseat belt. The abdominal muscles of young children cannot adequatelysupport the impact of a seat belt in the abdomen area during a crash orsudden jolt.

To use the safety garment 10 of the invention, a child is placed intothe vest 12 through, for example, a front opening and the clips 20 aresecurely fastened. The lower portion 16 is passed through the child'slegs and the clips 22 are securely fastened into the receptacles 24. Theadjustments straps 18 on the sides and back of the torso portion 14 areadjusted as necessary for a snug fit. The longer strap portion 28 isthen passed around an adult and securely fastened to the shorter strapportion 30. Therefore, the vest 12 and the child wearing the vest aresecurely attached to an adult. It will be appreciated that the designpermits the adult to attach and separate at will the longer strapportion 28 and the shorter strap portion 30, with no need to remove oradjust in any way the vest 12, once the vest 12 has been properly fittedonto the child. Optionally, the torso portion 14 may include anattachment device 42 which may loop around and support another objectsuch as a pacifier (not shown). It will be appreciated that an adult mayfasten the straps 28 and 30 with the child facing in anydirection--forward, toward the adult, or sideways. The child may besitting or cradled in the adult's arms. For younger children, diaperchanges will require only the additional step of undoing the clips 22from the receptacles 24 without having to remove the torso portion ofthe vest.

While it is contemplated that the present safety garment will havegreatest utility in the context of air travel, it will be readilyapparent that the invention may be used on other modes of publictransportation which do not currently require children to be strappedin. Buses, trains, subways and boats often experience sudden jolts whichmight result in a child being thrown from a parent's lap. The presentinvention will keep the child securely attached to the parent. It shouldalso be pointed out that the present safety garment in no way interfereswith an adult's use of a seat belt in an airplane context.

It is recognized that modifications and variations of the presentinvention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is intendedthat all such modifications and variations be included within the scopeof the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. Safety garment comprising:a vest having a torsoportion made of a breathable material and sized to fit a child; and astrap securely fixed to the vest, the strap sized to encircle a personwhereby the vest and the child wearing the vest are secured to theperson wherein the strap includes a longer segment and a shortersegment, the segments including releasible attachment means forfastening the longer and shorter segments together and further includingsnap means for securing the shorter segment of the strap to the torsoportion of the vest.